A French Railway Vocabulary

Not included in this list are words whose meanings are easily recognized in English, such as locomotive, signal, rail, train, station, sémaphore, lumineux, ballast, tunnel, pantographe, caténaire, direction, traction and so forth. An effort is made to indicate the gender of words, as well as common abbreviations and letters seen on signs. Alphabetization is imperfect. A "diamond" is a square standing on a corner; a "square" rests on an edge. This vocabulary is mainly concerned with operations and signalling. The French terms are from all eras, and from Belgium as well as France; the English terms are mixed British and American. This is a more complete vocabulary than I have seen elsewhere.

un abri, une cabine: locomotive cab

un agent: employee

les agents des trains: train crews

les agents de voie: track workers

les aiguilles (une): points, switches

une aiguille talonnable: spring switch

un aiguillage: pointwork, switches

un aiguilleur: switchtender

une aile: semaphore arm

à l'arriére: at the rear

une allumette-tison: fusee

un attelage: coupling

un atelier: shop

en amont: in rear (approaching in direction of movement)

en aval: in advance (beyond in direction of movement)

un arrêt: stop

arrêt: on sign: stop, then proceed only on verbal instructions

une automotrice: electric motor car, EMU

un autorail: motor car, DMU

Un avertissement: warning

un axe de la voie: middle of the track

la bande de contrôle: speed recorder tape

la balise, le mirliton: one of 5 signs counting down to distant signal

la barrière blanche: earlier form of horizontal balise, 1-5 stripes, like a hurdle